BALTIMORE – The Ravens found themselves in a dire situation against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night, facing a 14-point deficit in the second half due to a struggling defense.

So what gave them any hope of a comeback? Lamar Jackson is playing his best football ever.

Jackson produced the best fourth quarter of his career in leading the Ravens to a 35-34 win. With a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in the fourth quarter, he threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns – both personal bests in the fourth quarter – to record a season sweep of the Bengals and once again save the NFL’s worst pass defense .

It didn’t matter that the Ravens defense allowed 470 yards and five touchdowns. There was always the belief that Jackson would lead Baltimore to victory.

“He’s special, but we’re like little brothers right now,” Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey said of the defense. “He carries us.”

The reigning NFL Most Valuable Player had to shake off his worst start to the season. After throwing for 71 yards in the first half, Jackson started to click as Baltimore trailed 21-7 early in the third quarter.

Jackson threw touchdown passes of 84 yards to Tylan Wallace and 18 yards to Mark Andrews before connecting with Rashod Bateman for the winning touchdown of 5 yards with 1:49 left in the game.

Since 2021, Jackson has three wins when trailing by 14 or more points in the fourth quarter. That’s the most in the NFL over that span.

“He brings a different level of intensity and carries the team on his back week in, week out,” Andrews said. “And for us it’s believing again, it’s not giving up and understanding that we have the best player in the world in our team and we will never lose out.”

It wasn’t until last month when Jackson pulled the Ravens from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to a 41-38 overtime victory in Cincinnati. This extended Jackson’s dominance over the Bengals and improved his record against them to 10–1.

Jackson also became the only player in NFL history with five touchdown passes and no fourth-quarter interception against an opponent in a single season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“I just think he took that game on his shoulders,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

The Ravens are now 7-3 with the NFL’s No. 1 offense (440.2 yards per game) and the league’s No. 27 defense (367.9).

“I told my guys on the sideline, ‘We’ve got to score. If they score, we’ve got to score — that’s the type of game it’s going to be,’” Jackson said. “We saw that from the first picture, but I’m proud of my guys because we finished (and) we got through it.”

Baltimore will play the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) on November 17 in a battle for first place in the AFC North. If the Ravens fall behind in that game, they know they can come back for one reason.

“We have Lamar Jackson,” Bateman said. “I’m not going to lie to you. If he’s on the field, we have a chance to win the game, period.”